Virtualization@IBM

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Virtualization combined with Integrated Service Management helps you
use your resources effectively, manage your infrastructures
efficiently and gain the flexibility to meet ever changing business
demands.
This blog is for the open exchange of ideas relating to
virtualization across the entire infrastructure. Articles written
by IBM's virtualization experts serve as conversation starters.
Topics can range from latest technologies for server consolidation
and tools for simplified systems management and monitoring to
automating IT systems to respond to changing business conditions and
cloud-based solutions for the "virtual" enterprise.

There is a tipping point at which a disruptive technology takes off in the marketplace, displacing other technologies that may have previously been believed to be firmly entrenched. For open source solutions, this occurs when there is a compelling reason, such as cost, to switch from proprietary technologies, after it has been proven that the new technology delivers enterprise compatibility, ecosystem support, and the high quality and reliability required for enterprise adoption. We have already witnessed that tipping point with Linux - and we are seeing that same story play out now with KVM. As a result, it’s clear that 2012 is shaping up to be the break-out year for KVM.

Creating the backdrop for KVM to emerge in this leading role on the enterprise virtualization stage are two key factors. One is that there continue to be more un-virtualized servers sold than virtualized servers, as documented in a recent IDC webinar. This means that there is still an advantageous market situation for virtualization technology. If people think that the game is over, they are wrong. There are still many organizations in the process of adopting virtualization and there is still a lot of opportunity

The second contributing factor is the unrelenting pressure on organizations to control costs. Customers are looking to reduce their overhead while maintaining the enterprise quality of their infrastructure software. This is very clear. From the start, people looked at virtualization as a way to help them to eliminate underutilized resources and consolidate and share services better, thus lowering their cost. But what they don’t want to do is end up paying a lot for virtualization software as well. We are hearing from customers about their concerns regarding the high cost of proprietary virtualization software and we know that this is becoming a big pain point for them. The pressure to control cost is driving organizations to virtualization in general, and then steering them in particular to KVM.

Still, the trend toward server virtualization has existed for several years, and the pressure to contain costs as well is certainly not new.

Why, then, is 2012 shaping up to be the big year for KVM in particular?

There are three main reasons.

For one thing, Windows servers have virtualized faster than Linux servers, but now KVM is embedded in all of the enterprise-proven Linux distributions including Red Hat and SUSE, as well as in Canonical Ubuntu, making it easy for Linux servers to be virtualized. According to a recent Canonical survey, KVM is now more popular than Xen as a virtualization hypervisor among survey respondents.

In addition, more and more customers are looking at dual virtualization strategies, in which they are adopting KVM in addition to VMware. Why? Cost containment. They have an installed base of VMware, but now that KVM is available and enterprise-ready, they see that for the next wave of server virtualization they can further reduce expenses. The thing that enables this to happen is the availability now of simple and effective virtualization management. For example, IBM Systems Director VMControl which added support for KVM in 2011, enables customers to gain more from infrastructure-wide virtualization. Customers can reduce the total cost of ownership of their virtualized environments – servers, storage and networks – by decreasing management costs and increasing asset utilization. VMControl enables the management of virtual environments across multiple virtualization technologies and hardware platforms, from a single pane of glass, enabling users to benefit from a multi-hypervisor virtualization strategy

IBM’s new SmartCloud Foundation offerings allow organizations to install, manage, configure and automate the creation of cloud services in private, public or hybrid environments with a higher level of control than previously available in the industry. For example, since deploying IBM SmartCloud Provisioning, IBM customer Dutch Cloud, which has a mixed virtualization environment with both KVM and VMware servers, has seen its client base expand significantly while its administrative workload has been reduced. Now the IT team spends 80% of its time on client migrations and only 20% of its time on administration—a more than 70% decrease in administrative time. As a result, Dutch Cloud’s monthly recurring revenue has tripled twice in the last 6 months but their operational costs have remained flat.

KVM has now reached a level of security, enterprise-readiness, and strong third-party support that allows customers to deploy it with confidence and in addition, possesses a robust, and rapidly expanding ecosystem of supporting technology providers.

IBM and HP servers virtualized by KVM are responsible for the top performance scores on the SPECvirt_sc2010 benchmark, a benchmark for evaluating the virtualization performance of data center server consolidation.

Underlining KVM’s strong industry support, the Open Virtualization Alliance (OVA), which was formed to increase adoption of KVM and encourage third-party solutions to be built around KVM, now has more than 250 members and the new oVirt Project

has also been created to provide a server virtualization management system for KVM.

And so for all these reasons, it seems clear that 2012 will be a very big year for KVM: major Linux distributions are supporting KVM; enterprises are adopting KVM as part of dual virtualization strategies that have been further bolstered by the development of comprehensive management from a single pane of glass; and, KVM is proving it is secure, enterprise-ready, and has a strong ecosystem around it. Plus, its lower-cost provides a compelling reason for every enterprise large and small to seriously consider KVM. Just as it did for Linux, the tipping point for KVM has arrived.

On April 24, IBM announced IBM PowerLinux solutions, built on a new Linux-only family of servers. These two-socket servers – one rack-mount and one compute node – run industry standard Linux, and have been tuned to run key emerging workloads like big data and open source network infrastructure.

With these new offerings, IBM is taking Power’s well-known strengths in scalability, flexibility, and security and making them available to customers that might not previously have thought of Power as an option. Now, quite simply, IBM is taking pricing off the table.

The PowerLinux servers are smaller, entry-level servers that are ideally suited for scale-out type workloads which are very popular in the Linux space, and are focused on three main areas:

The new servers offer particular advantages for big data environments like financial services that have large amounts of data coming off countless of transactions. Big data benefits from technical advancements learned from IBM Watson and the POWER architecture’s ability to do many things in parallel.

In addition, industry-specific companies that provide applications to small and mid-market companies are looking for alternatives to the typical x86 platform that can give them high performance and robustness, as well as built-in virtualization. Within this area, there are OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) such as GE Healthcare that need to attach an intelligent server to an X-ray machine, or another company based in Japan that needs to put that same kind of intelligence next to a scanner or digital copier. For these types of scenarios, companies can OEM our new Power Linux servers which are smaller and affordable, and build new innovative solutions that are pre-integrated using PowerLinux as a base.

And a third key area for PowerLinux servers is around Linux-based services for email, networking, file, print, and web-based applications. With the new PowerLinux line, we offer a very affordable server that includes ironclad server virtualization, so that companies can put many workloads on to a small number of servers and build a very efficient Linux infrastructure.

What makes PowerLinux ideal for these uses is that multiple workloads can be placed on a single server in a virtual environment, effectively avoiding server sprawl. Also, the POWER7 architecture with its multithreading capabilities is ideal for workloads that need to do many things at the same time.

Linux has really changed the economics of IT, and in these tough times many customers are turning the open source operating system in order to control costs. It also provides rich functionality as a result of its vibrant developer community. IBM continues to contribute and participate in the development of Linux, both financially and with a global team of software developers who are dedicated to its continued growth.

Though Linux and Power Systems were born at different times for different reasons, both have transformed the markets they serve over time. And despite their different starting points, they are now meeting in the middle, building the right combination of technologies for mid-market companies. Linux now offers affordability and a rich set of capabilities to make it “enterprise ready” and Power, which inherently exploits virtualization, has also become more ubiquitous and more affordable.

As a result, this new Linux-only offering from IBM can enable mid-market customers to gain the superior capabilities of IBM Power for about the same investment they would make for an Intel- or AMD-based solution, if not significantly less. In addition to costing less, PowerLinux solutions can perform faster, scale better, and stay up longer than competitive x86 products. When you think about the expertise and capabilities that IBM brings to bear by combining the widely used open source Linux operating system and the very affordable new Power product line, this is a very compelling value.

It’s time to have a conversation about what PowerLinux provides.

Scott HandyVice President, PowerLinux Strategy and Business Development